1. Field of the Invention
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to an imaging apparatus and an imaging system, which include multiple pixels including multiple photoelectric conversion units.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there has been known an imaging apparatus which include multiple pixels including multiple photoelectric conversion units and outputs a signal based on one of the photoelectric conversion units, and a signal based on a part of photoelectric conversion units of the other photoelectric conversion units. As for an embodiment using at least these two signals, a focal-point detecting method to perform focal-point detection of the phase difference detecting method has been proposed, for example. As an example of an imaging apparatus which outputs a signal available for such a focal-point detecting method, there has been an imaging apparatus to which a pair of photoelectric conversion units are provided for each micro lens of a micro lens array arrayed in a two-dimensional manner. With Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-83407, there has been proposed an imaging apparatus wherein addition or non-addition of a signal output from a pair of photoelectric conversion units to which light is input via one micro lens may optionally be performed in increments of pixels including a pair of photoelectric conversion units.
Also, with Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-156823, there has been described an imaging apparatus including pixels for distance measurement and pixels for imaging operates according to three types of readout methods of a still-image shooting mode, thinning mode, and distance measurement mode. With the still-image shooting mode, though pixel signals of pixels for distance measurement and pixels for imaging are output from the imaging apparatus, pixel signals from the pixels for distance measurement will not be used for the subsequent signal processing, and pixel signals for imaging alone will be used. The distance measurement mode is a mode wherein, contrary to the still-image shooting mode, pixel signals from the pixels for distance measurement are used without using pixel signals from the pixels for imaging in the subsequent signal processing. The thinning mode is a mode wherein at the time of outputting pixel signals from the imaging apparatus, pixel signals are output from the pixels for imaging alone, and pixel signals from the pixels for distance measurement are not output.
With the imaging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-83407, sufficient study has not been performed regarding how to obtain an image obtaining signal which is a signal based on multiple photoelectric conversion units, and also how to obtain a signal for performing focal-point detection in the phase difference detecting method, and a signal based on a part of the photoelectric conversion units at high speed. With the imaging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-156823, in order to obtain an image obtaining signal, operation has to be performed in one of the still-image shooting mode and thinning mode, and in order to obtain a focal-point detection signal, operation has to be performed in the distance measurement mode. Thus, in order to obtain both of an image obtaining signal and a focal-point detection signal, pixel signals have to be output by scanning pixels of a solid-state imaging element multiple times. Accordingly, with the imaging apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2001-83407 and 2000-156823, study has insufficiently been performed regarding how to obtain a signal based on a part of the photoelectric conversion units of the multiple photoelectric conversion units from the imaging apparatus at high speed, and also how to obtain a signal based on the multiple photoelectric conversion units.